He was also profiled in a very interesting article titled "The Men Who Control Our Missions to the Moon," which was in the Saturday Evening Post, December 28, 1968/January 11, 1969.

Edited by Naraht

kr4mula

I am truly sorry to hear of Phil's passing. My sincere condolences to his family and his bigger NASA family. I had the pleasure of meeting him a few times at JSC events and had the distinct pleasure of sitting in on his JSC oral history interview (cited above). I remember him vividly for his wry sense of humor, especially once the recorder was turned off. A sample from the interview:

Sy - I was really surprised to hear what you said he died of. This is personally close to me because doctors strongly suspect one of my wife's aunts has the same thing.My wife (who is a physician herself) mentioned that the symptoms often persist for years (I didn't see any around that interview), it's exceedingly rare in the US, and is only positively diagnosed via autopsy.

Kevin

Sy Liebergot

Kevin, et al, thank you all for the kind words.

This is what Gene Kranz sent this morning:

quote:Hi Gang,Sad news. Bob Reggelbrugge just called and said that Phil Shaffer passed away this morning at 3am. He died of Jacobs-Crutchfield disease.... Bob said that he was OK a month ago when they went out to dinner, then had a sudden onset in the last 30 days. No data on servicers etc., but the family said that they might have a get together of friends later.Cheers

mdmyer

Sorry to hear about the loss. This is why we need people like Sy to tell the stories of these people. Listening to Sy Saturday evening you could feel his passion for the history of our early space efforts.

Phil was a huge help to us while we were working on Homesteading Space, and gave us incredible insight to what was going on in Mission Control during the Skylab missions. I had only limited interaction with him personally, but he made a huge contribution to the book.